It's the end of the year. Well, close enough to allow me to look back over it.

It was an interesting year, though I didn't publish a whole lot, I must admit. Part of this is because I've been putting my energy into longer pieces, as my interest in short fiction has taken a bit of a backseat. It is, honestly, financial reasons that drive me to it. I have a good part time business that keeps me in groceries and rent, but I'd like my writing to be at the very least half my yearly income, and to do that, the best way is to write novels. Well, actually, the best way is to become a freelance writer and work your ass off writing copy and various other jobber like tasks, but I already have a gig I do for cash and no soul, and writing has never been intended for that. I want to be a steady novelist, with all that comes with that, and that's what I'm chasing. The little chase took a few hits during the year. The global financial market crash continued not to help things, and neither did the various sagas of publishers and agents, some of which were pretty hard, personally. A few times, I even thought about giving it up, and calling it a day, but the moment always passed. It can be a tough business, that side of the thing, and I am not the first or last person to experience it. Hell, I'm not the only person I know to experience it this year.

But, you go on. I have a new agent. She represents Derryn Hinch. If it doesn't work out, I will always have this fact. But, truthfully, I view this as the first step of turning things around. Keep working hard, turn it round some more, and keep doing that, until everything looks a bit more successful and I am once again getting emails from famous musicians.

I did write a bit of short fiction this year, however. 'White Crocodile Jazz' appeared in the anthology Spawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein.

Bigger and better, however, Above/Below with Stephanie Campisi was sold and, despite the delays, will be out next month and has come together quite nicely, if I do say so myself. It can be read as either two individual, split novellas, or read together as a novel. People who have read it seem to think it's pretty shiny, and with any luck, it'll get a bit of buzz, find itself an audience, and you shall all tell Steph how awesome she is, and send her small, but expensive presents to demonstrate this.

It seems like a small year, doesn't it? Yet, a lot went on, a lot of ups and downs and busy and lazy and cash easy cash hard, all of which doesn't need to be recounted here for folk. Sufficient to say, things are looking pretty decent at the end of the year, and I'm pretty confident and hopefully that it will all continue to improve.